Provost clears the air on WASC accreditation
Provost Judith Greig
Issue date: 12/6/07 Section: News
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NDNU students, faculty, and staff have raised a number of questions in the last several months regarding NDNU's accreditation status. To address that issue, I have produced a detailed explanation of the WASC accreditation process and how NDNU is affected by it. This will be circulated to the entire community in the next few days.
Here is a brief overview. NDNU completed its regular cyclical review by WASC in 2006 and its accreditation was renewed. We are not scheduled for another formal, comprehensive review of our accreditation status until the spring of 2013, a process that will take two years, meaning that, in effect, we will remain accredited for about nine years. The WASC commission did make a number of recommendations in its final report. That is not at all unusual; it happens with most WASC reviews. There will be a special visit in 2009 to assess the progress the University is making in addressing those recommendations, but that too, is not unusual.
So the next question is, how are we doing in addressing those recommendations? I can report that by any measure NDNU has already made significant progress in addressing each of the areas raised by the WASC report. Let me give you some examples:
Strategic Planning: NDNU immediately set to work and produced a strategic plan within nine months of the final WASC visit. The plan is comprehensive and addresses many of the issues raised by WASC as well as other areas important to our community.
Faculty Workload and Academic Programs: Several faculty committees have made a number of recommendations for program reduction and several programs that did not appear to be appealing to students have been eliminated. Work is continuing through a revised program review process.
Improving Enrollment and Retention and Financial Stability: Many factors have combined to lead to a decline in enrollment over the last several years and that has had a financial impact on the University. However, we have a new team and believe that we have turned the corner. We are confident that enrollment will rise in the fall of 2008. NDNU is moving on a wide variety of fronts to ensure fiscal stability and sustainability from new budgeting systems to new programs designed to increase revenue.
Communication, Consultation, Collaboration: A great many efforts are under way to improve communication on campus. Chief among these is a Governance Task Force with representation from across the campus. Community Forums have been increased and senior staff meetings have been opened to academic deans and the Faculty Senate President.
There is more of course, a great deal more. But the important thing to remember is that while there is an extraordinary amount of work to do, there is nothing extraordinary about that fact. We are doing what every good institution does: assessing ourselves, finding our weaknesses, fixing them, and moving on.
Here is a brief overview. NDNU completed its regular cyclical review by WASC in 2006 and its accreditation was renewed. We are not scheduled for another formal, comprehensive review of our accreditation status until the spring of 2013, a process that will take two years, meaning that, in effect, we will remain accredited for about nine years. The WASC commission did make a number of recommendations in its final report. That is not at all unusual; it happens with most WASC reviews. There will be a special visit in 2009 to assess the progress the University is making in addressing those recommendations, but that too, is not unusual.
So the next question is, how are we doing in addressing those recommendations? I can report that by any measure NDNU has already made significant progress in addressing each of the areas raised by the WASC report. Let me give you some examples:
Strategic Planning: NDNU immediately set to work and produced a strategic plan within nine months of the final WASC visit. The plan is comprehensive and addresses many of the issues raised by WASC as well as other areas important to our community.
Faculty Workload and Academic Programs: Several faculty committees have made a number of recommendations for program reduction and several programs that did not appear to be appealing to students have been eliminated. Work is continuing through a revised program review process.
Improving Enrollment and Retention and Financial Stability: Many factors have combined to lead to a decline in enrollment over the last several years and that has had a financial impact on the University. However, we have a new team and believe that we have turned the corner. We are confident that enrollment will rise in the fall of 2008. NDNU is moving on a wide variety of fronts to ensure fiscal stability and sustainability from new budgeting systems to new programs designed to increase revenue.
Communication, Consultation, Collaboration: A great many efforts are under way to improve communication on campus. Chief among these is a Governance Task Force with representation from across the campus. Community Forums have been increased and senior staff meetings have been opened to academic deans and the Faculty Senate President.
There is more of course, a great deal more. But the important thing to remember is that while there is an extraordinary amount of work to do, there is nothing extraordinary about that fact. We are doing what every good institution does: assessing ourselves, finding our weaknesses, fixing them, and moving on.
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